Askiy Ridge Ducks Spooking

[grand nimbus]

If you experience this, PLEASE file a ticket with support so it is more readily visible to the devs.

It seems that the wood ducks on Askiy Ridge spook far too easily, regardless of being inside of a hunting structure. I tested at three different water bodies (both large beaver lakes in their home range, as well as a small pond in the southeastern corner of the map), as well as at various ranges between 15-50m with the same result, regardless of which hunting structure was used (including waterfowl blinds, layout blinds, and water layout blinds - a tripod as well for good measure). At any sort of range where birdshot is realistically able to consistently hit and kill them, they would go alert, then flee within a few seconds of landing; even reaching the alert status occasionally while passing directly overhead in the case of level 2-3 ducks. I have not tested northern pintails to the same degree, but they seem to be spooking under similar circumstances so I suspect they would behave much the same.

I don't believe this to be a purposeful change to waterfowl as a whole, given both species of goose as well as mallards on Askiy Ridge seem to be behaving as normal. although I have not yet tested ducks or geese on other maps.

This was all tested in a singleplayer setting.

[cosmic rain]

Same issue with wood ducks. On PS5. Have tested different locations, hunting structures, with or without dogs, etc. Decoys are 36m away from blind with wind at my back so the ducks are landing towards me. Despite this, they either spook before landing or immediately after. In spotting specific ducks, I'm noticing that the bigger males spook before landing. Females will land and go Alert, Defensive and then fly off.

I will test my Salzweisen duck setup this afternoon and report back.

[gaunt meteor]

Same thing on xbox.

[grand nimbus]

I've tested the waterfowl on other maps as well as doing a bit of it for the northern pintails and it's definitely only an issue on Askiy Ridge specifically with the two new duck species. And given I forgot to mention it, I've been testing on PC so it seems like it's an issue on all platforms.

[cosmic rain]

Can also confirm they work fine on my other maps. Attached is what they're doing on Askiy Ridge.

[celest yarrow]

I ran into this same situation last night with Wood Ducks on PS5. As soon as they touch the water they go alert and within five seconds flee. It's unfortunate because I was really looking forward to hunting Wood Ducks and I don't like shooting them with a .22, that feels like cheating.

[grand nimbus]

Honestly it all but killed the map for me, I was really looking forward taking to wood ducks.

[bleak cobalt]

Sometimes they stay calm some times they spook

[cosmic rain]

What conditions have you seen them stay calm?

[bleak cobalt]

I hunt multiplayer alot
I keep my tripod 50 meters away

[gaunt meteor]

If you stay 60-85 yrds away they dont spook

[cosmic rain]

That is well out of shotgun range. The issue here is that they erroneously gave wood ducks a sense of smell that they should not have. You should be able to set up 25m away from your decoy spread with the wind blowing towards the decoys.

[cunning crater]

I shot a male in tall grass. While collecting it I heard ducks, so I ducked and then laid down. Entire flock landed within 30y and remained calm while I shifted to spot them all between grass blades. They remained calm all the way up until I started blasting from my knees. Went on to repeat this a few more times. No caller, no decoys.

[pseudo mauve]

I’m almost certain this is not a bug. Wood Ducks are known as ‘Super Ducks’ because they have extremely good senses. I experimented a bit and found out that being about 50M away and wind blowing away from the ducks solves this issue.

[cosmic rain]

Being 50m away and wind blowing away from the ducks is out of shotgun range and nullifies the usefulness of decoys.

[cunning crater]

Go watch some early access VOD's. Almost every duck was shot with a .22 while in flight. Almost all of the grouse were taken with a shotgun. Insightful, maybe?

[pseudo mauve]

It’s better with the .22, and shotguns zero up to 75? So what’s the problem? And if you use callers they’ll still come in.

[cosmic rain]

The problem is they are bugged. Bottom line. They are intended to be hunted the same way every other duck species is hunted.

[pseudo mauve]

The are not bugged, it’s just EW being genius. As I said, Wood ducks have super senses, ergo the nickname “Super duck.” They have some of the most strongest senses in the animal kingdom. We asked for realism, they gave us realism. Brilliant EW, brilliant.

[cosmic rain]

They have the same sense of smell as other ducks. It is not in any way realistic to give them a sense of smell.

[cosmic rain]

Further, scientific research shows them to have similar senses (vision & hearing) to other hunted duck species. They are not a Super Duck in any real sense.

[bleak cobalt]

They're not bugged
Everytime I play I hunt wood ducks to clear hunting pressure

[cosmic rain]

My friend, bugged does not mean unkillable. Both things can be true. The ducks can be bugged, in this case given far too strong of a sense of smell, AND still be killable by adjusting for this by shooting beyond 45m or with the wind at 90 degrees or greater. They should not ever spook due to smell. Read this article on the subject from Outdoor Alive.

https://outdooralive.com/can-ducks-smell/

[grand nimbus]

Given it applies not only to wood ducks but also to the pintails, I doubt they did it for the sake of (wrongly) displaying that this particular specie has heightened senses over other ducks. It's definitely a bug; now whether it's bugged in the sense that they shouldn't have such strong senses, or in the sense that EW decided to make the ducks more sensitive again as a whole, I couldn't quite say. Although seeing as it wasn't too long ago that they rebuilt waterfowl hunting to actually really be practical with a shotgun, I have my doubts that the latter is the case.

[rancid tinsel]

I’ve been using scent control and it works great, which bugs me as a waterfowl hunter since ducks shouldn’t really smell. Also birdshots seems to not kill them after 20m even though on Sal I shot from 60 and drop them.

[cosmic rain]

You are absolutely correct on the birdshot issue too. I'm a very experienced waterfowl hunter and can tell you the wood ducks take a wound shot in situations where every other duck will drop. That makes this spooking issue just that much worse since further shots often don't kill them.

[rancid tinsel]

Also nvm about the scent control I’m using it rn and they are still spooking so idk, it worked last night but now isn’t lmao.

I also don’t know that much about wood duck hunting irl since I’ve only shot two and both dropped immediately. However I was hunting wood blinds where the farthest shot was like 15 yds

[cosmic rain]

Scent eliminator gives a % chance to "work" but sometimes the spray does nothing, hence the inconsistent results. At 15m they'd likely spook even if the scent eliminator took effect since it doesn't completely remove your scent. To remove all doubt, you'd have to go to the Codex, take note of how many animals you've spooked by scent and then compare that number after the ducks spook to see if it increased. Bottom line though is they shouldn't ever spook from scent in the first place.

If the newly updated COTW Companion app is accurate, they gave wood ducks double the scent detection as any other ducks, which is enough to destroy any appropriate decoy setup in shotgun range.

[rancid tinsel]

Yeah, I kinda hope they make it where birds don’t have any sense of scent. Additionally both pintails and wood ducks make quacks like mallards which is just plain stupid.

[bleak cobalt]

They work fine for me

[rancid tinsel]

Snow goose are also giving me problems

It might just be waterfowl on this map but they evidently have a sense of smell as good as a dog

[cosmic rain]

45m away is not exactly convincing

[bleak cobalt]

?

[cosmic rain]

The issue is they gave them a sense of smell strong enough to give them the ability to spook on scent. You being beyond the range that they can smell adds nothing to the significance of the issue.

[bleak cobalt]

You don't have to get super close to kill them

[cosmic rain]

My goodness. That is not the point. You can kill them from 150m+ with a 22lr if you want. As I stated earlier, being bugged doesn't mean unkillable. They should not have a sense of smell. Period. You should be able to set up a decoy spread at 25m and hunt them upwind of that spread like every other duck in the game.

[rancid tinsel]

Do you hunt ducks irl?

[bleak cobalt]

No I dont

[torn torrent]

i’d like to add my experiences to this here. As someone who has spent well over a thousand, maybe two thousand hours on bird hunting alone, and a high percentage of that time being ducks, there is a problem. i’ve had wood duck and pintail and snow goose all spook from over 70 meters away when the wind isn’t going on their direction, and one example with wood ducks from over a hundred meters away. and i can confidently say before this update that ducks/geese did not do that. It definitely makes it very annoying to play, and it just honestly makes it hard to have fun hunting the new waterfowl. thought id just add my own experiences as a person who hunts birds a lot.

[rancid tinsel]

Can I also add that wood ducks, and pintails both make mallard sounds until they land which is highly unrealistic. As well snow geese look like Canada geese during their migration phase and they make Canada goose calls during this phase.

[rancid tinsel]

Not to be rude, but the reason I say that is because in true duck hunting you set your decoys and blind with the wind hitting you in the back so when the ducks try to land they fall in front of you. As well you put your decoys inside of 10-30m for close shots. This method works for the duck species before Canada but not the new ones on it. Also most birds do not have a scent of smell at all. The only group of birds I can confidently say that have a good sense of smell are vultures.

[bleak cobalt]

Not to be rude,but it's a game
If I ever take up duck hunting irl good advice and thanks for sharing

[rancid tinsel]

I understand it’s a game, therefore I and many other players should be able to effectively hunt them using our preferred methods.

[grand nimbus]

I don't look for a day and the replies have doubled. lol Glad more people are starting to take notice of the bug (it IS a bug, there are no two ways about it), hopefully a fix will be pushed through soon.

[grand nimbus]

I'm glad you've also noticed it, although I fear the only ones who will are experienced bird hunters, and thus it will be ignored for lord knows how long.

[torn torrent]

the fact the migration system with how awful it is isn’t still fixed leads me to believe the same, which truely sucks because the new birds are genuinely some of the best cotw has to offer right now

[grand nimbus]

Honestly it serves it's purpose well enough, if basic. This issue kind of shakes up their recent (a year or so) track record of making good waterfowl changes, I hope they sort it out quickly. I will be optimistic for the time being, given they have been good about improving waterfowl.

[cedar patrol]

Please everyone file a ticket about this, it makes the issue more known to them, i experience the same issues, at least with snow geese

[grand nimbus]

Good shout, not sure how I forgot to mention that, but it's added to the main post now.

[cedar patrol]

Ok great

[sleek beacon]

Bump... needs a fix. Noticed that too and ... it's annoying

[grand nimbus]

It very well does, but I have almost no hope that they will. EW is hilariously slow at fixing well known issues, much less this.

[naive fox]

Same here. Got them to work for a small while on ps4 at the tiny lake near the bottom of the map, then never again. No difference in set up, decoys, distance, etc seemed to change it.

[naive fox]

This. I do believe the wind possibly has something to do with it, as I’ve seen multiple people mention this as a bug and I’ve noticed it myself. They can smell you, but ducks don’t smell.

[sweet schooner]

I’ve also noticed it’s mostly a wind issue because I can hunt them just fine but when the wind is facing them they spook almost immediately

[cedar patrol]

Yeah makes no sense birds have a terrible sense of smell

[grand nimbus]

The thing is, I have become almost entirely convinced that it has nothing to do with smell. I have tried setups at different angles and it seems regardless, if the decoys are below 50m, they spook. They also seem to become alert 100m above while circling as well, seemingly at random (to an extent, it depends on difficulty) so I am starting to wonder if something went horrificly wrong in how they coded their behaviors.

[cosmic rain]

When I said it was smell, I wasn't guessing. Here are some screenshots and video. 1st screen, notice the # of animals that I've spooked from smell is 401. A flock of 12 wood ducks are coming in. One male has landed, and you'll see how the 2nd duck flies away before landing in the video. The next screenshot shows the number of animals that have spooked because of smell has increased by 10, and hearing increased by 2. I'm in a waterfowl blind and not wearing backpacks of any kind.

[cedar patrol]

The score in your profile isn’t that your entire score like since the start of your account? If you only hunt ducks it makes sense tho

[cosmic rain]

I took the first screenshot when the ducks first appeared and the 2nd one after they spooked. So the difference between 411 and 401 is the number of ducks that JUST spooked due to scent.

[cedar patrol]

Oh my bad, i didn’t look closely enough

[unreal mason]

That happened to me once with wood ducks

[grand nimbus]

Gentlemen, they appear to have finally fixed this according to the patch notes

[rancid tinsel]

Let’s go